Yep, one doesn’t often find the words ‘entertaining’ and ‘infomercial’ in the same sentence, but I found it to be true when I filmed an informercial for the Kneader with Beauty Crowd yesterday in Swansea.
When it comes to marketing material and PR, I am much happier letting my product take centre stage. However, as I am the ‘world expert’ at using the Kneader (debatable – seeing all the cool moves that other therapists have come up with), I sometimes find myself being pulled into the limelight, no matter how hard I resist. When Beauty Crowd proposed filming an infomercial with both myself and the Kneader on camera, I accepted but only because there was nobody else to suggest – oh, the sacrifices we entrepreneurs must make!
Neil Phillips (the Welsh beauty baron who runs several on-line beauty sites) is passionate about all over beauty and social media and, with Beauty Crowd, he has married the two by promoting health and beauty products through social networking. Although we had all spoken and emailed many times, I was more than anxious when I started the 4-hour drive over to Wales on Wednesday night. Worse still, I left all my good ‘camera’ clothes in London sitting on a chair, all lovely and ironed and abandoned. The prospect of filming in the old tracky-bottoms that I had worn to clean out the chicken coop was not a happy one. Thankfully, I have a clever husband who texted me the location of some shops close to where I was filming and I carried out what must be a world-record for the fastest ever shopping trip for suitable trousers and a top the next morning.
But, you know, I really needn’t have fretted – the whole Beauty Crowd team was superb! Neil met me at the door and from there on in I was taken care of, guided, filmed, fed, entertained and generally sorted by either the lovely presenter Opal Bonfante (a good presenter is worth their weight in gold!), Amy the filming manager, the lovely models Tracy and Matt (a real-life couple and fans of the Kneader), the camera guys, production team and Neil himself. The day flew by and, as always when working with the Kneader, I felt energised and calm, even after 7 hours or so of filming. It’s amazing how positive energy, passion for what you are doing and intermittent massage can turn business into fun.
Of course, despite the professional camera-men, I will be appalled to see myself on film (I did say they were free to Photoshop me into gorgeousness!), but the Kneader really was the star of the show because it demonstrates beautifully and looks great on camera. I am delighted that Neil understands how wide-ranging the Kneader’s appeal is and wants to film other Kneader infomercials, including one for the professional therapist market and one for the sports market. He also loved the aromatherapy candles I brought from Karaliz Cosmetics and is interested in offering a package deal with both the Kneader and the candles to his customers for Christmas. Exciting stuff and hopefully the start of a long and fruitful relationship for both Kneads Must and Beauty Crowd.
The Beauty Crowd website will be going live on 1st October 2014 – until then, here is their review of the Kneader at: Beauty Crowd Kneader Review
Here’s a still from the filming. I’m in the middle trying to look knowledgeable…..
